Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
Ah..looters. Not in the ‘Atlas Shrugged’ context, but real honest to goodness running-down-the-street-with-a-VCR-in-each-hand looters… Its one thing to scavenge for food and water…its another to enter the ruins of someones house and help yourself to their belongings..and its a completely different story to set up your own little goon squad and start robbing the stricken survivors.
There is, of course, one recourse to such evil and ‘it is best delivered with a Winchester rifle’, as TR might say.
Living in Montana is a mixed blessing when it comes to worrying about looters. On the one hand, most looters won’t last long. On the other hand, any looters here are likely to be quite well armed.
Regardless, contrary to the stereotype, we dont spend all our resources worrying about looters and invading UN hordes. Really. But the fact is that when the lights are out, its the middle of winter and theres no idea when the supermarket is going to be open our little heated, illuminated and well-stocked homes are going to look mighty tempting and some people just dont take no for an answer.
What are the standard armaments for the LMI’s? I was mentioning this yesterday to a potential recruit…heres what we went with and why:
AR-15 rifle – We went with this because although an M1A would offer more power we wanted something that would let us get mags, parts and ammo anywhere….every National Guardsman or cop is a potential source. (”Hey soldier boy, trade you a bottle of Jack for five magazines and a firing pin…”)
Rem 870 shotgun – The most common shotgun in the US and a proven design with all sorts of accessories available. The Mossberg is a secondary standard.
1911 .45 – We all like .45’s so we standardized on the 1911 pattern
Browning P35 – 9mm is the most common ammo on the planet so it made sense to have something in that caliber…Glocks and Rugers are pretty common but the P35 has all the same controls as our 1911’s. Theyre also quite reliable and well made
Ruger 10/22 – Again, the most ubiquitous .22 rifle in the US. Mags and accessories are everywhere.
Additionally, we try to keep spare parts for everything as well as ’support materials’ (holsters, cleaning kits, screwdrivers, lubricants, etc).
Thats it for standardized weapons. After that theres caliber standards but no specifics on the firearm itself. For example, everyone has to have a .357 revolver but you can have whatever make you want. Same for a .308 bolt gun. (Although we’ve been thinking about standardizing on the Rem police package)
Although it isnt required, most of us try to have redundancy in our armaments. For example, 2 AR-15, 2 1911’s, 2 Ruger 10/22’s, etc, etc. Sounds paranoid, right? You’d be surprised….
